Page 36 - Arkanas Trucking Report Volume 22 Issue 5

Practice What You Preach

UCA professor earns his CDL to take trucking skills to the classroom

By Deana Nall

Contributing Writer

As the summer of 2017 began,
while most professors were teach-
ing summer classes, writing articles,
attending conferences, serving on com-
mittees, writing grant proposals and
preparing for the upcoming school year,
Dr. Doug Voss, associate professor of
logistics and supply chain management
at the University of Central Arkansas,
had a different plan. He enrolled in
truck driving school.
This wasn’t because Voss was seek-
ing a career change. He signed up for the
intensive, four-week course to make his
own teaching more authentic and valu-
able to his students. As part of the degree
plan for the new major and minor in “TO TEACH TENNIS LESSONS, YOU NEED TO LEARN A
logistics and supply chain management, FEW SWINGS. I WANTED TO LEARN A FEW SWINGS.”
Voss teaches courses in transportation
and safety and motor carrier policy.
Most of his students will go on to work —DR. DOUG VOSS, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF LOGISTICS
in trucking companies or firms that deal AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT AT THE
with trucking companies. UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS
“I think that if you’re going to
teach trucking, and specifically if you
are going to teach safety in trucking,
you need to know the basics of how a
truck works,” Voss says. “To teach ten- pre-trip inspections of the truck and roads in the U.S., compared to 3,000
nis lessons, you need to learn a few preparing for tests at a simulated test- from gun violence. We hear about gun
swings. I wanted to learn a few swings.” ing site. Everything centers around the deaths on the news, but we don’t fre-
So, to practice what he preaches, most important concept in the UACC quently hear about car deaths.”
Voss enrolled in the Commercial program, in Voss’s courses at UCA and in The UACC course began with an
Driver Training Program at University the trucking industry: safety. in-depth study of the anatomy of a
of Arkansas Community College at “Safety is a key part of trucking truck, and how the different parts work.
Morrilton. Four days a week, Voss and in general, and it’s also a key part of Voss and his classmates spent hours
his classmates had instruction time from my students’ everyday lives,” Voss says. learning how to back up a truck with a
7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The days included “Last year, 40,000 people were killed on 53-foot trailer, which Voss says might

36 Issue 5 2017 | ARKANSAS TRUCKING REPORT